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Chapter 2
How Real-World Information
Becomes Computable Data
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Since computer programs process real-world information, the rst step
of computational problem solving is to encode real-world information as
data that can be processed by a computer. Real-world information comes
from many sources and in a variety of forms. Converting information into
data that a computer can store and understand presents many challenges.
For example, how can an audio recording, or a seventeenth-century Dutch
oil painting or a full-color page from a textbook or even a ngerprint be
stored i ...